Jeremiah 12
1 Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead before You. Yet about Your judgments I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?
上主，幾時我與你爭論，總是你有理；但我仍願與你討論正義：「為什麼惡人的生活總是順利，一般詭詐極惡的人總享安寧﹖
2 You planted them, and they have taken root. They have grown and produced fruit. You are ever on their lips, but far from their hearts.
你栽植了他們，他們就生長根滋長，結出果實；他們的口離你近，他們的心卻離你遠。
3 But You know me, O LORD; You see me and test my heart toward You. Drag away the wicked like sheep to the slaughter and set them apart for the day of carnage.
至於你，上主，你是認識我的，你考察了我對你的心意；求你把他們像待宰的羔羊一樣拉出來，留待宰殺的一天。
4 How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field be withered? Because of the evil of its residents, the animals and birds have been swept away, for the people have said, “He cannot see what our end will be.”
[這地要哀傷，整個田野的草木要枯萎到幾時﹖由於居民的邪惡，野獸和飛鳥都被消滅。] 因為他們說：「天主不管我們的作為。」
5 “If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in a peaceful land, how will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?
「你與人徒步競走，尚覺疲乏，你怎麼能與馬角逐﹖在平安的地區尚覺不安，在約旦河的叢林區，你更將何如﹖
6 Even your brothers— your own father’s household— even they have betrayed you; even they have cried aloud against you. Do not trust them, though they speak well of you.
連你的兄弟和你的父族對你都無誠意，在你後面厲聲喊叫；即便他們對說好話，你也不要相信。」
7 I have forsaken My house; I have abandoned My inheritance. I have given the love of My life into the hands of her enemies.
「 離開了我的家，拋棄了我的產業，將我最心愛的人交在敵人的手中。
8 My inheritance has become to Me like a lion in the forest. She has roared against Me; therefore I hate her.
我的產業對我竟好像是森林中的獅子，向我咆哮，為我憎恨他它。
9 Is not My inheritance to Me like a speckled bird of prey with other birds of prey circling against her? Go, gather all the beasts of the field; bring them to devour her.
我的產業對我竟成了一隻帶斑點的鷙鳥，以致鷙鳥圍著向它襲擊。你們去田黟的一切野獸，叫它們來吞噬。
10 Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard; they have trampled My plot of ground. They have turned My pleasant field into a desolate wasteland.
許多牧童毀壞了我的葡萄園，蹂躝了我的產業，使我喜愛的產業變為荒蕪的曠野。
11 They have made it a desolation; desolate before Me, it mourns. All the land is laid waste, but no man takes it to heart.
他們使它荒涼，荒涼得在我面前哀傷；全地荒涼，因為沒有一人關心。
12 Over all the barren heights in the wilderness the destroyers have come, for the sword of the LORD devours from one end of the earth to the other. No flesh has peace.
破壞者已來到曠野的一切高崗上，因為上主的刀劍正在砍伐，從地極到地極，凡有血肉的，都不得安寧。
13 They have sown wheat but harvested thorns. They have exhausted themselves to no avail. Bear the shame of your harvest because of the fierce anger of the LORD.”
他們播種了麥子，卻收割了荊棘；雖筋疲力竭，卻沒有利益；由於上主的憤怒，都因自己的收穫而害羞。
14 This is what the LORD says: “As for all My evil neighbors who attack the inheritance that I bequeathed to My people Israel, I am about to uproot them from their land, and I will uproot the house of Judah from among them.
上主這樣說：關於那些險惡的鄰邦．即侵犯我給予我民以色列佔有的產業的鄰邦，看，我要由他們的地上將他們拔除，也要由他們中拔除猶大家。
15 But after I have uprooted them, I will once again have compassion on them and return each one to his inheritance and to his land.
在我拔除他們以後，我要再憐憫他們，引他們復歸自己的產業，各回自己的故鄉。
16 And if they will diligently learn the ways of My people and swear by My name, saying, ‘As surely as the LORD lives’—just as they once taught My people to swear by Baal—then they will be established among My people.
設若他們殷勤學走我人民的道路，奉我名發誓說：「上主永在」，如同他們昔日教我人民奉巴耳發誓一樣，他們就可在我的人民中再度復興。
17 But if they will not obey, then I will uproot that nation; I will uproot it and destroy it, declares the LORD.”
倘若他們不聽從，我必拔除這民族，將他們拔除消滅──上主的斷語。
